Sphere:Longshots

It's 2170. About 100 years since founding, and hundreds of light years from Earth. You don't really care. They've never spoken to you. All you have are second-hand tales from trade caravans, about FTL failures and killer drones. They call it 'the Rim', but you just call it home.

Longshots Signup Sheet

Base Infrastructure

• 150 population
• 300 PIP
• 200 CIP
• 200 wealth
• 150 delta dust
• 12,500 military

History Paths

What Happened?

A1) Origins

Pioneers (+pop)

Some people petitioned the posthumans with the pure spirit of adventure. With no frontiers left on Earth, only longshots could satisfy the human drive for exploration and discovery.

Seperatists (+military)

Others left to escape persecution, real or imagined. Distance from Earth would shield them and let them start anew.

Idealists (+morale)

Still others held in their minds an ideal for society. By travelling to a new land with like-minded people, they could make a better life, on sound principles.

A2) Colonists

Baseline (+pop)

Mixed (+10 transgene, +5 SP)

Transhuman (+transgene)

A3) Destination

Garden World (+pop)

Tolerable World (+SP)

Hell World (+morale)

No World (+shipbuilding)

B) Historical Events 1

Quiet (+pop)

Digging (+PIP)

Crisis (+stockpiles)

Nationalism (+morale)

Military Action (+military)

Artefact Find (+dust)

Improvements (+transgene)

C) Historical Events 2

As B.

D) Historical Events 3

As B.

What Now?

E1) Political Stance

Keep On Keeping On (+pop, +SP)

It's the 100th year since founding and we still haven't gone crazy. Pretty good for the neighbourhood.

Grand Ambition (++military, +FTL application, -relations)

To the power-hungry, the isolation and fragmentation of the Rim is an opportunity, not an obstacle.

The Podunk Union (+relations, +FTL application)

Others look to soft power and cooperation against the challenges of deep space.

Open for Business (+wealth, +FTL application)

Despite the distances, trade can still be lucrative and many worlds focus on advancing opportunities.

Get Out (+military, +doctrines, +defences, -relations)

Worlds with bad experiences or things to hide take a tough line with outsiders.

Ideological Purity (++morale, +PIP, -relations)

Worlds based on certain ideologies can be extremely sanctimonious about them.

E2) Economic System

Get Digging (++PIP)

Hard work and strong backs wean colonies off fabricators and onto their own two feet.

New Gilded Age (+military, ++PIP, -morale)

Get back to work, scum.

Fabricator Rations (+++++ fabbers, -PIP, --CIP)

You had more than your share of fabricators, and your economy never graduated from dependence on them.

Social Management (+morale, +transgene)

Without annoying moralisers and lawyers looking over your shoulder, a rationally organised society can be set up.

Transistor Mines (+CIP, +dust/drexlers)

Sophisticated structures of posthuman or alien origin can be torn apart for components to be used in other technology.

Crossroads (+pop, +wealth)

Worlds at convergences of trade routes reap dividends.

The Pirate Bay (+military, +wealth)

Other worlds decide to take them by force.

Slumlords (++pop, +military, -morale)

When population outstrips government and infrastructure, black markets and mean bars spring up.

E3) Military Doctrine

Able Spacemen (+shipbuilding, +fleet doctrines)

A focus on a solid and reliable fleet is key to defence in the depths of space.

The Low Road (+ground application, +ground doctrines)

Ships are hard. It's better to focus on a strong army to defend.

Swarms (+aerospace application, +aerospace doctrines)

Making effective smallcraft is a challenge for rim states, but pays dividends.

Death Spiral (+tech, ++applications, -wealth)

Some worlds are desperate to gain any technical advantage they can, but without substantial research infrastructure this takes a severe toll.

Into the Darkness (+FTL application, +dust)

Effective interstellar travel is crucial to trade and power projection.

Lord's Army (++military, +morale, -doctrine)

Enthusiasm and mass will carry the day.

Chaotic Events

Freaks (+radical morphological change, -pop)

Some populations took dramatic steps to deal with the challenges of their environment.

Populism (+morale, -relations)

Shout louder, that'll do the job.

Resources

• Wealth represents a variety of valuable materials or tokens backed by governments, although only the most powerful states have currencies worth much beyond the neighbouring systems.
• Delta Dust is reality-editing nanotechnology of precursor or posthuman provenance, mined from their relics.
• Theta Dust is improved - or repaired - dust, rare and valuable and much more potent for those who can master it.
• Drexlers are sophisticated yet mundane nanomachines used in Velan technology, which can rapidly construct devices.
• Nephilim Armour is drone cladding, impossible to replicate with human science but tough and resistant to drone plasma.